In August Ofcom released what it described as the most comprehensive research into broadband speeds that has ever been undertaken. Headline findings were that broadband speed is a big issue for consumers and that ISP performance depends on network capacity and technology.
To carry out this research Ofcom partnered with SamKnows who created a bespoke performance testing solution, which has subsequently been taken up by ISPs and Internet researchers around the world. During the course of the trial, over 65 million performance benchmark tests were completed in over 1600 UK homes over a 6 month period. From this dataset, Ofcom and SamKnows were then able to compare the broadband packages provided by the 9 largest ISPs in the country. The findings were as follows:
- Broadband speeds received were confirmed to be significantly beneath advertised headline speeds. This is a well know situation to both ISPs, Regulators and informed Internet users alike, but for Ofcom to validate this with a statistic was a considerable step forwards. SamKnows found that the average broadband speed in the UK in April 2009 was approximately 4Mbit/s. This equated to only 57 percent of the average ‘up to’ headline speeds as advertised by the ISPs.
- During the trial, the actual speeds varied considerably. Only 9 per cent of the SamKnows panel received actual average speeds of above 6Mbit/s. At the other end of the scale 19 percent received less than 2Mbit/s. This figure is significant because 2Mbit/s is the minimum connection speed that the Government would wish us all to have by 2012.
- Of those consumers on a broadband package with a top speed of over 2 Mbit/s, over 10 percent were unable to get broadband speeds of 2Mit/s or above.
- People in cities or urban areas received significantly faster speeds than those living in rural areas.
- All broadband users experienced a slowdown in actual speeds during peak periods. During the evening broadband speeds were approximately 20 percent slower than at other times.
The future of this project is currently being reviewed, with a commitment by Ofcom to repeat the research on an annual basis. However, SamKnows continues to run the panel and collect the data. SamKnows is currently in talks with various ISPs which will enable it to publish the report on a more frequent basis.